


something new

by ignitesthestars



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Kissing, Romance, nerds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 17:43:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11741988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ignitesthestars/pseuds/ignitesthestars
Summary: Barold J Bluejeans is an interesting character. A gruff man, almost abrasive at times, but Lup's seen him in the lab when he thinks he’s alone. He talks to his work, quiet murmurs like ‘no, I don’t need you yet, stay there, where did I put - oh, there you are’. It’s a cute sidenote, before the Hunger comes.Afterwards, she finds it comforting.





	something new

If Lup is honest with herself, she starts flirting with Barry because she likes the way he stutters when she does it. It’s not the kindest thing she’s ever done, but Lup and Taako don’t join the IPRE to be nice. It’s more along the lines of a big ol’ Fuck You to life, the universe, and everything. Anything - and anyone - else is just details.

Plus, making people uncomfortable is a Taaco twin specialty. They don’t trade in trust, so seeing how people react when something’s gotten under their skin is the fast-track way to getting to know them (they laugh themselves sick after Merle very serious informs her that he understands the appeal, but he’s too old for her).

The habit falls away as she gets to know the others, as they start to form a crew instead of a random collection of beings. Davenport hides his feelings behind regulations, and Magnus doesn’t hide them at all. Lucretia is a shy, sweet thing for all of her gravitas, and Lup likes her too genuinely and immediately to be that bad of a tease. Merle is distressingly into plants and too chill to be phased by much at all.

Barry, though--

Barold J Bluejeans is an interesting character. A gruff man, almost abrasive at times, but she’s seen him in the lab when he thinks he’s alone. He talks to his work, quiet murmurs like ‘no, I don’t need you yet, stay there, where did I put - oh, there you are’. It’s a cute sidenote, before the Hunger comes. 

Afterwards, she finds it comforting. She can’t even say why, just that when he starts doing it as they work in the Starblaster’s more cramped quarters together, on the Light of Creation, on upgrading the ship, on increasingly wild and weirder magics that they encounter in each world, she smiles. She leans in closer and he moves to fit her around him. His voice softens to suit the lack of space between them, and she finds herself just listening as the cycles roll on, when talk and talking and never shutting up has been her shield for so long.

He still stutters. But it’s usually around a smile, and he keeps his gaze locked with hers when sudden shyness makes him duck his head. He draws her unconsciously into his space at the same time as she moves in, with a hand on her shoulder, her arm, the small of her back. They’re working on some small, mindless project in some forgotten, unnumbered cycle when she realises that it’s just - it’s _their_ space.

“No, not you,” Barry murmurs, wrinkling his nose to inch his glasses back into place. “Lup can you give me the - the, uh--”

Lup hands him the beaker he wants before the words travel through the haze of Science in his brain to his mouth. And then she just watches, leaning back against the bench with her arms crossed over her chest, a lazy smile playing about her lips. 

It takes him a moment. He doesn’t look away from his work, but she can see the blush working steadily up his neck. “You’re - uh, watching me.”

“Sure am.” 

“Thought you were interested in how these things managed to stay invisible without any obvious spell work?”

“Magic,” she suggests. “Barold.”

“Well, I mean, we don’t know for sure that it’s magic, but even if it is, don’t you want to - wait. Yes?”

“Can I kiss you?”

She half wonders if he’s going to choke on air or something equally silly. Maybe this’ll be the moment when he finally gets annoyed with her, turns around and demands she stop teasing, and she’ll have to explain that she’s never been so deadly serious in her life, except about Greg Grimaldis owing her fifteen bucks.

But he doesn’t do any of this, and her smile maybe widens a little more because she _likes_ that Barry will still surprise her every now and then, that she doesn’t have him and his reactions wrapped around her little finger. 

No, he stills for a second, like her words have to penetrate the Science Haze back the other way. She watches as he uses a finger this time to push his glasses up, before setting the beaker down and straightening. Maybe it takes him another second to summon up the courage, or maybe he just needs that time to gather his thoughts, but he does turn to face her after that brief interlude.

He’s smiling Small, slight, like he’s not one hundred percent sure how to get the muscles working in concert right now, but it’s the softest fucking thing she’s ever laid eyes on. 

“You’re blushing,” he says.

“Shut up, I am not.”

“Red as our robes, babe.”

She is disgustingly, delirously happy at him calling her _babe_.

“Hey, keep it up and I’ll withdraw the question, buddy. Then who are you going to be kissing?”

He rubs the back of his neck, but that’s a grin on his face now and butterflies in her stomach, and if she was watching this from the outside she’d definitely be making gagging noises, so she’s mostly just grateful Taako is off doing Taako somewhere else.

“I mean - no one,” he says. “You’re the only one I want to kiss.”

That - huh. That sure is an admission, and the word _same_ swims to the front of her brain while her mouth chases up the obvious. “So I can take that as a yes, right? Kissing, we’re cool with that happening? Like I thought about being all romantic and just going for it, but then I figured you’d probably appreciate a little more forewarning than--”

“Lup.”

She nods, abruptly silent. Words are her shield, after all, and there’s no need to be guarded around Barry.

“Can I kiss you?”

She nods again. They meet in the middle, her wrist hooked around the back of his neck, his hand cupping her face like she’s some precious, breakable thing, and if her lips are a little chapped, his glasses are positioned awkwardly, and she doesn’t care, she _doesn’t care._

“Shit,” she laughs, pulling away, kissing his cheeks, his nose, the corner of his mouth. “Shit, Barry, what took us so long?”

His thumb ghosts over her cheekbone, and Lup thinks she might cry. She thinks she might be crying already? “Who cares?” he says, and she kisses him again because, too fucking right.


End file.
